Carrying on an MLA tradition, the Electronic Literature Organization is sponsoring an off-site reading of new works of digitally born literature. Priority will be given to work of high literary value and unforgettable, earth-shattering presentations. Artists new to electronic literature are especially encouraged to submit!

The 2014 Electronic Literature Organization Conference will be held June 19-21, 2014 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with sessions on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. In conjunction with the three-day conference, there will be a juried Media Arts Show, with exhibits at UWM.

For the Conference, proposals should address critical, reflective, or theoretical questions. Formats may include elements of demonstration or (brief) performance, in context of inquiry or analysis that goes beyond the work itself. Proposers are welcome to discuss their own work, under this requirement.

The Media Arts Show provides an occasion for extended display, performance, and presentation of original works. Please identify submissions for the Show as such.

We invite proposals of no more than 500 words, including a brief description of the content and format of the presentation, and contact information for the presenter(s). Describe any technical needs beyond standard screen projection and audio. Send proposals to eliterature2014 [at] gmail.com, using plain text format in the email, or attached as Word or PDF.

Proposals for the Conference will be reviewed by a Program Committee convened by the Conference Co-Chairs. Proposals for the Media Art Show will be reviewed by a jury chosen by the Media Arts Curator.

ELO is proud to announce the launch of the 2013 conference “Chercher le texte” in Paris, 24-27 September, 2013. This marks the first international conference ELO has held, but the 5th conference since State of the Arts in 2002. The Paris conference features works from over 100 artists from 14 countries as well as a complete scholarly program of academic presentations. Events begin Sept 23 with a meeting of the CELL (Consortium on Electronic Literature) group, a debate and performances at Centre Pompidou.

With Paris as its backdrop, the wide variety of events will be held at historic cites in the coeur of Western Europe’s artistic body, including BPI – Centre Pompidou, Labo BnF | François-Mitterrand, École nationale supérieure des Arts Décoratifs (EnsAD), and Le Cube – Centre de création numérique.

As we move along the road to ELO Paris 2013 “Chercher Le Texte,” the organizers are tantalizing us with some of the scenes to come.

Recently, the working version of the conference program has appeared online. Running Monday, September 23 till Friday, September 27, the conference will feature an international gathering of artists and critics.

Also, you can see the gallery of the works that will be presented during the conference (not to be confused with the various other online galleries and exhibitions to come). Venues include the Pompidou Centre, The Cube, and The Bibliothèque nationale de France.

Certainly, there will be more news on this conference to come. Keep an eye on the conference website, @chercherletexte on Twitter, or the Facebook page.

“Pathfinders: Documenting the Experience of Early Digital Literature” is making its debut at Washington State University Vancouver July 8 – 9 in the Electronic Literature Lab in the Classroom building, room 210. Stuart Moulthrop, professor of English at the University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee and an innovator of electronic literature and hypertext fiction as both a theoretician and writer, will be the first guest. He will also lecture at 7 p.m. July 9 at Nouspace Gallery, 1005 Main St, Vancouver, Wash. The lecture, “Failure to Contain: Electronic Literature and the State of (Machine) Reading,” is free and open to the public.

The project explores the idea of digital preservation and asks the questions: What happens to literary works meant to be experienced on a computing device when the software and computer systems with and for which they were created update, change or become obsolete? Do we allow these works also to become obsolete too, or do we find ways to preserve them?

“Pathfinders,” led by Dene Grigar, associate professor and director of the creative media and digital culture program at WSU Vancouver, and Moulthrop, are developing methods for digital preservation with the goal of capturing not only the digital work but also the human experience of interacting with early digital art . It is supported by a “Digital Humanities Start Up Grant” from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Moulthrop has produced many critically significant works of digital writing and art over the past 25 years. One of his best-known, “Victory Garden,” (1991) was produced for computers that are not compatible with current standards, making the work unavailable for web-based archives without changes to its original form.

To preserve the beauty of the original work, Grigar will videotape Moulthrop in the Electronic Literature Lab as he talks through “Victory Garden” using a vintage Mac Classic. Following Moulthrop’s reading, two readers unfamiliar with “Victory Garden” will be videotaped to produce a record of multiple readers’ experience with the work. This is a process Grigar and Moulthrop call “traversal.”

Three more “Pathfinders” traversals are scheduled through the fall. To learn more, visit http://dtc-wsuv.org/wp/pathfinders or contact Grigar at dgrigar@vancouver.wsu.edu

Announcing an important national grant that will help scholars explore and archive early electronic literature:

The U.S. National Endowment for the Humanities has awarded the Electronic Literature Organization a Digital Humanities Start-Up Grant amounting to $52,003 for an innovative historical effort involving the first generation of modern digital writing.

The Pathfinders project, proposed by ELO President-elect Dene Grigar of Washington State University Vancouver, and Board Member Stuart Moulthrop of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, will build an archive of readings in which the authors and volunteer readers explore the textual possibilities of early digital texts. Readings will be carried out on the early computer systems for which the works were originally intended.

Recorded sessions will be made available through the Electronic Literature Database, and will also form the basis for multimedia presentations developed by the investigators and other colleagues. Using innovative software such as Scalar, these publications will explore strategies for representing and preserving computer-mediated writing.

Among the works chosen for the project are Judy Malloy’s Uncle Roger: The Blue Notebook (1986), John McDaid’s Uncle Buddy’s Phantom Funhouse (1994), and Shelley Jackson’s Patchwork Girl (1995). Plans are underway to expand to other key titles from the 1980s and 90s.

Sponsored by the Electronic Literature Organization, the research will take place in the E-Lit Laboratory of Washington State University, Vancouver. The project begins in the spring of 2013 and will conclude in late 2015.

Members should remember that ELO can be used as a sponsoring organization on many different kinds of grants. Contact us for more information.

ELO is pleased to announce the election of new officers. Dene Grigar has been elected as the next ELO President; Sandy Baldwin, Vice President; and Davin Heckman Secretary.

Drs. Heckman and Baldwin will take their new posts immediately, and Dr. Grigar will take the Presidency at the 2013 ELO Conference in Paris. We are fortunate to have such accomplished board members take these positions. They have already distinguished themselves in their service to the organization.

As incoming President, Dr. Grigar moves from her position as Vice President. During her time in ELO, she has coordinated a major conference (2010 Visionary Landscapes); several major exhibitions, including recent events at MLA 2012 and 2013 and the Library of Congress, and has worked toward networking ELO with other organizations. She has played a pivotal role in the organization and has been actively involved in ELO’s recent events. Her work has greatly raised the profile of the organization and electronic literature more broadly.

We relay our gratitude to President Nick Montfort, who has served his post with excellence for the past three years. During his tenure, Dr. Montfort has overseen the release of the Electronic Literature Collection, Volume 2, the ELO Conference at Morgantown (2012), the development of the Electronic Literature Directory, and many other key projects, along with managing the day-to-day operations of ELO. Dr. Montfort will continue as Faculty Advisor, as our headquarters remains at MIT, where he is on faculty.

Mark Marino has stepped down as Secretary, but he will continue as the Director of Communication. Vice President Talan Memmott will also continue to serve.

Some information about our new officers can be found below.

Sandy Baldwin (PhD, NYU) is Associate Professor of English and Director of the Center for Literary Computing at West Virginia University. In this capacity, he directs numerous projects on new media and digital humanities, as well as teaching courses on multimedia writing. He has been a Fulbright Scholar of new media studies in Austria and Visiting Professor of hypermedia at the University of Paris 8 (St. Denis). Baldwin is a scholar of code, bodies, and creativity in new media, with numerous essays on this topic. He is Managing Editor of electronic book review and the creator and publisher of Computing Literature, the only academic book series devoted to scholarship on electronic literature. His codework poetry is collected in several books and he creates glitched/interventionist computer game performances. For over a decade, he has collaborated with Alan Sondheim on an exploration of performance and embodiment in virtual worlds. Baldwin formerly served as ELO Treasurer. He has also been involved in planning the annual ELO conference and in managing the database interoperability between the ELOs CELL partners.

Grigar has curated 10 exhibits since 2005, including those for the Planetary Colleguim, the ELO 2008 and ELO 2012, the MLA 2012 and MLA 2013, and the Library of Congress. Upcoming exhibits she will curate include a showcase at the 2013 Digital Humanities Summer Institute at the University of Victoria and an exhibit at Illuminations, the gallery for the School of English, Media, and Theatre Studies at the National University of Ireland Maynooth, in March 2014. Grigar is the Founding Director of Nouspace Gallery & Media Lounge, the gallery located in downtown Vancouver associated with the CMDC Program.

Davin Heckman (Associate Professor, English, Siena Heights University) is the Supervising Editor of the Electronic Literature Directory. His book, A Small World: Smart Houses and the Dream of the Perfect Day (Duke University Press, 2008), addresses the intersection of technology and everyday life. In 2011-12, Heckman was a Fulbright Scholar in Digital Culture at the University of Bergen. His articles on “digital poetics” can be found in Culture Machine, Dichtung Digital, electronic book review, and Leonardo Electronic Almanac. He is the “electropoetics” thread editor for the electronic book review and serves on the Editorial Advisory Boards for the journals Rhizomes, Hyperrhiz, and Reconstruction.

Following up their back-to-back exhibits at the Modern Language Association, ELO Vice President Dene Grigar and Kathi Inman Berens are bringing electronic literature to another hallowed venue that was formerly the primary proving grounds of print matter: the U.S. Library of Congress.

Running April 3-5, the exhibit, “Electronic Literature & Its Emerging Forms,” part of the “Electronic Literature Showcase,” features 27 works of electronic literature––dating from 1982 – 2013––by American authors, relevant printed works from the Library of Congress collections, readings by select authors featured in the exhibit and hands-on workshops for visitors.

Along with the exhibit, the Library of Congress’s “Electronic Literature Showcase” includes an exhibit of rare books; a keynote address by ELO board member Stuart Moulthrop, panel discussion about electronic literature’s connection to major areas of knowledge and creativity featuring Berens; Grigar; Matthew Kirschenbaum, associate director of the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities; and Nick Montfort, current President of the Electronic Literature Organization. As a sign of her dedication to training future e-lit scholars, Grigar has also continued to draw and train student docents from her home institution, Washington State University-Vancouver (WSUV). All events are free and open to the public.

From the WSUV announcement:

Generally defined as a “digital born” literary work, electronic literature is a “first-generation digital object created on a computer and (usually) meant to be read on a computer.” In a world dominated today by smart phones and tablets, the term computer has come to include any computing device. The electronic literature featured in the exhibit has been produced by major American artists and influential pioneers working in any language, and reflects a broad spectrum of genres and approaches, e.g. kinetic poetry, hypertext fiction, animated graphic novels and augmented reality environments. These works will be displayed on iMacs, iPads, vintage Macintosh computers, and vintage Atari game systems.

This exhibit of electronic literature is the Library of Congress’s first. It was made possible by digital humanist Susan Garfinkel, research specialist with the Digital Reference Section, CALM Division, at the Library of Congress, as well as colleagues in her department and at the Library.

For more information about the exhibit, contact Grigar, dgrigar at vancouver.wsu.edu, or visit the exhibit website at http://dtc-wsuv.org/elit/elit-loc/. For information about the Electronic Literature Showcase, contact Susan Garfinkel, elit at loc.gov, or visit the website at http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/elit-showcase.html.

Follow the event on Twitter @eLitatLOC and hashtag #elitloc, as WSUV student Evan Flanagan directs the social media for the event.

Ian Hatcher is a poet, programmer, and performance artist living in NYC. Prosthesis, an ongoing project, is an expanding suite of code/text/vocal works exploring feedback loops between human cognition and digital systems.

Yael Kanarek is a media artist. In her practice she looks at globalization through interaction of languages and the collective experience of standard time. Selected scenes from Object of Desire, an online story inspired by motifs and themes born in the Middle East and Mediterranean, will be performed.worldofawe.net/objectofdesire

Paul La Farge is the author of four novels, most recently Luminous Airplanes, which is also a web-based hypertext. His short stories have
appeared in The New Yorker, Harper’s, McSweeney’s, Conjunctions, Fence and elsewhere.

Illya Szilak uses circulating media and collaborations forged via the Internet to create multimedia novels. She will perform from her latest Queerskins www.queerskins.com.

Alice van der Klei invites students to try their hand at translating electronic literature with an opportunity to have your translation published in bleuOrange and to be featured in a presentation at the ELO 2013 conference in Paris.

The special issue will include works by ELO President Nick Monfort and Board members Stuart Moulthrop, Scott Rettberg, and Mark Marino along with notable artists including JR Carpenter, Roderick Coover, Rodrigo De Toledo, Tal Halpern, Alexander Mouton, and Mark Marino.

All of the works will be translated into French for this special issue, but the contest offers a unique opportunity for students to show off their way with words. The full announcement follows.

Each year, Figura, the research centre on the text and the imaginary (Concordia University, Montreal) and the Department of French Studies at Concordia University, in collaboration with bleuOrange (www.revuebleuorange.org) open a contest for the publication of a new digital work by a student in the next bleuOrange issue.

For the year 2012-2013, the contest will award a translation of a digital work.

The works published in French in bleuOrange include image, text and sound. They are made for a screen interface and are characterized by hyperlinks and interactivity. The works must have literary content (text) and must adress one of the three disciplines studied at the Department of French Studies at Concordia University (literature, translation, language / linguistics).

Here is the list of works the bleuOrange editorial board has selected to be translated into French and published in the bleuOrange 07 - SPECIAL TRANSLATION ISSUE. Sept. 2013.

Everyone can submit a translation, however, translations made by students will enter a translation contest giving them a possibility to publish their translation, collaborate with an #elit artist and to present the work at ELO 2013.

Eligibility:
This contest is open to students enrolled in a college or university in Quebec or elsewhere in a Francophone institute (full or part time), all members of a group must also meet these criteria.

You must send your intention to participate, a short CV and your choice of work for translation by 30 March 2013.

CONCOURS ÉTUDIANT – OEUVRE MÉDIATIQUE

Figura, Département d’études françaises, bureau LB-601

Université Concordia

1400, boul. de Maisoneuve Ouest

Montréal

H3G 1M8
Contact: figura at alcor.concordia.ca
or for any questions on the works themselves alice at labo-nt2 dot org